Tiew, S Y (2025) Improving professional development through building contract administration (bca) framework of housing projects for graduate architects. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 32(8), pp. 5272-5290. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Purpose – The administration of a contract by the architect is necessary to ensure the contract is performed according to the conditions of the contract, compliance with related laws and the practices of the construction industry. With the increasing number of housing projects and the limited number of registered architects in the nation, the architect is unable to be hands-on with every project. Hence, the involvement of graduate architects to reduce the workload in building contract administration (BCA) is required. The purpose of this paper is to develop a BCA framework for graduate architects to enhance their work performance in BCA work and to assist them in moving a step closer to acquiring their professional qualifications. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopted a qualitative method where seven housing projects in Malaysia were selected as case studies to conduct documentation reviews and semistructured interviews. The data collected was analyzed using content analysis to develop the BCA framework. Focus groups were used to validate the framework. Findings – This study summarized there are 5 themes (claims and legal matters management, project management, communication and relationship management, quality assessment and management, and design management) and 11 sub-themes (authority matters, building certification, meetings, coordination checklist, letter-writing, contract documentation, building material, design brief, building sustainability and workmanship quality standard, contractor's submission and building details) that need to be improved by graduate architects in BCA work. Originality/value – The contribution of this study to the existing knowledge is the development of a BCA framework that enables graduate architects to get a glimpse of architectural professional practice in reality and better prepare them to confront and resolve problems. Besides, the proposed framework could be incorporated into a pedagogy focusing on methods to support construction contract administrators.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building contract administration; case study; framework; graduate architects; qualitative method |
| Index terms: | contract documentation, workmanship, professional practice, design management, methodology, design brief, content analysis, quality assessment, documentation, workload, qualitative method, housing project, interview, compliance, certification, focus group, construction industry, project management, work performance, coordination, building sustainability, pedagogy, relationship management, construction contract, architect, building material, Malaysia, qualification, building contract, quality standard, case study, professional development |
| Subjects: | management, contractual condition, teaching methods, professional development, project management theory and practice, administrative processes, industry analysis, data collection methods, profession, research design and methodology, building materials, technical documentation, sustainability and energy, data analysis and analytics, research methods, educational resources, health safety and environment, Geography, design process, housing and residential development, quality assurance, contract type, operations management, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Procurement, Project Management, Geographical Context, Health and Safety, Education, Quality Management, Roles and Professions, Information Management, Research Practice, Organizational Design, Contract Administration, Human Resources, Urban Studies, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here